POSTER FOR THE 1908 HESSISCHE LANDESAUSSTELLUNG, DARMSTADT, GERMANY

Friedrich Wilhelm Kleukens, the German graphic designer and typographer created this poster for the Darmstadt artist's colony's third exhibition in 1908. Open to artists and craftsmen from the Hesse region and centered around a small colony of residences, the exhibition was intended to demonstrate that modern forms of living were attainable with limited financial means. Kleukens and the other members of the Darmstadt artist colony, which was founded in 1899 by Ernest Ludwig, the Grand Duke of Hesse, lived and worked together in a building in Matildenhöhe, Darmstadt with the goal of developing modern and forward-looking designs.
cf. Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration, Darmstadt, October 1907-March 1908, p. 34.
Museum Künstlerkolonie Darmstadt, Darmstadt, 1989, p. 126.